Consolidation Monitor

Use

The consolidation monitor provides a graphic overview of consolidation units and consolidation groups, as well as tasks and task groups.

It provides a central work environment for:

  • Executing tasks (for collecting, standardizing, and consolidating all reported financial data)

  • Monitoring the progress of the tasks for each individual consolidation unit or group

Prerequisites

Customizing of consolidation has been completed except for the settings concerning the consolidation monitor. In particular, you have defined the following settings:

Features

Layout of the Consolidation Monitor

The consolidation monitor has a matrix-like structure. By default, the hierarchies of organizational units and the hierarchies of tasks are arranged as follows:

  • The rows of the consolidation monitor display the hierarchies of the organizational units.

  • The columns of the consolidation monitor show the task hierarchy (which includes task groups and tasks ).

  • The status for the task groups and the tasks is shown for each node of the organizational unit hierarchy.

A legend (located in the menu of the monitor) explains symbols and texts.

You have the option of changing the layout of the consolidation monitor to display the hierarchies of organizational units in the columns and the hierarchy of tasks in the rows. To do this:

  • Call up the context menu for the header row and choose:

    Start of the navigation path Swap Characteristic with… Next navigation step Consolidation Group/Consolidation Unit End of the navigation path or

  • Call up the context menu for the header column and choose:

    Start of the navigation path Swap Characteristic with… Next navigation step Task/Task Group End of the navigation path

Consolidation Unit Hierarchies

The consolidation monitor displays all status-relevant consolidationunithierarchiesdown to the level of consolidation units (the end nodes of the hierarchy). For more information about status-relevant hierarchies, see the “Status-Relevant Hierarchies” section in Status Management in the Consolidation Monitor .

For a better overview of the organizational units to be processed, the consolidation monitor provides the following functions (listed in the menu and the standard function bar):

  • You can show or hide the columns for lower-level hierarchy nodes of the task hierarchy.

  • You can search for organizational units in the displayed portion of the hierarchy.

  • You can set the focus on a hierarchy, a consolidation group, or a consolidation unit. The consolidation monitor then only displays those particular organizational units with their lower-level units .

    You can remove the focus by choosing the appropriate menu options in the Edit menu, or in the context menu for a given node.

From the consolidation monitor you can go to master data maintenance for organizational units. To do this, you place the cursor on the node for the master data object in the hierarchy of the consolidation monitor, and then choose Start of the navigation path Goto Next navigation step Master Data End of the navigation path ; or you can double-click the object.

Task Hierarchy

You can display all tasks you defined in Customizing. In particular, how the tasks are displayed depends on the following factors:

  • The task hierarchy or task sequence you defined

    The task hierarchy determines the sequence of the tasks executed by the consolidation monitor. The system ensures that certain tasks are executed in a required sequence.

  • The permanent parameters you selected

    Make sure that:

    • The task hierarchy is time and version dependent.

    • You assigned a consolidation frequency to a task in your Customizing settings.

      Accordingly, the task is only displayed in consolidation periods. Thus, if you chose yearly consolidation for a given task, the consolidation monitor only shows this task for period 012.

  • For the balance carryforward task: The consolidation frequency you assigned in customizing for the version combinations

    The monitor only shows the balance carryforward task in the first period of the consolidation interval.

For information about processing the tasks depending on their status, see Status Management in the Consolidation Monitor .

Layout of the Consolidation Monitor

The matrix in the consolidation monitor can become very large and somewhat unwieldy, depending on your corporate structure and consolidation requirements. Therefore, the consolidation monitor includes the following functions to modify the layout of the monitor:

  • In the hierarchy of the organizational units you can:

    • Set a focus

    • Hide the names of the organizational units (the consolidation monitor displays only the keys)

  • With the columns for the task hierarchy, you can:

    • Partially or completely expand or compress the columns

    • Manually set or automatically optimize the width

  • You can set filters to

    • Display only certain statuses, such as all tasks with errors

    • Hide the end nodes of a hierarchy

  • In the status display area you can display either symbols or texts that reflect each status.

  • You can save your user layout (see the menu Layout or the corresponding symbol in the standard function bar). Then your layout settings remain intact even after ending and restarting the consolidation monitor.

    The following settings in particular are saved:

    • Focus

    • Hierarchy display

    • Status display

    • Task display

    • Names on/off

      The user layout is not dependent on time or version.

      To display the default layout , and no longer your user layout, choose Start of the navigation path Layout Next navigation step Default Layout End of the navigation path .

      Recommendation Recommendation

      You should choose the default layout after you have made changes in hierarchies of organizational units or changes in the task hierarchy.

      End of the recommendation.

      When you change the sequence of tasks, the system performs a check for the layout.

      Note Note

      For more information, see SAP Note 699111. This extensive consulting note offers support in your day-to-day use of the consolidation monitor.

      End of the note.
Performing the Tasks
Conditions for Processing Tasks

The following applies when processing the tasks:

  • All tasks that belong to the task hierarchy apply for each and every consolidation unit. Only these tasks are excluded:

    • Data collection tasks

    • Manual posting tasks

    • Tasks that are irrelevant for a consolidation unit

  • There is a required sequence for certain tasks. For more information, see Task Sequence .

Selection of the Organizational Units

In the consolidation monitor you can execute tasks for a single consolidation unit or for a consolidation group. However, some tasks can only be executed for consolidation groups – for example, tasks for the consolidation of investments.

Start Mode

You can run the tasks in the following ways:

  • Test run ( Test pushbutton)

    You can execute test runs regardless of a task's status at any time.

  • Update mode ( Post pushbutton)

    You can run a task in update mode if the task has been opened and the preceding tasks have been blocked (see Status Management ).

  • Update mode without blocking ( Start of the navigation path Task Next navigation step Update without Blocking) End of the navigation path )Same as Update Run except that the system does not automatically block successive tasks after a successful update run. This is useful in multilevel corporate groups when you want to post on the group parent level but still allow for adjustments in the lower levels of the corporate hierarchy.

  • Update mode with pendent tasks

    When you run a task in update mode and preceding tasks are still pending (that is, not yet blocked), the system runs the task only tentatively (see Status Management ).

  • With selection screen ( Start of the navigation path Tasks Next navigation step Execute with Selection Screen End of the navigation path )

    This lets you enter the selection conditions and technical settings (update/test mode) in a dialog box prior to executing the task.

  • Run successive tasks without stop

    This lets you execute the tasks of a task group in succession without stopping in between, as long as they can be executed automatically. This feature speeds up the creation of your consolidated statements.

When you run a task group or a task, the system indicates the task in process in the status bar of the consolidation monitor.

For more information on running task groups and tasks in multiperiod consolidation, see Multiperiod Consolidation .